Improvement



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER G. CUMNOOK, OF LOIVELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT'EN SELF-ACTING MULES FOR SPINNING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 49,861, dated September 12, 1865.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER G. CUM- NOOK, of Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Self-Acting Mules for Spinning; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and eX- act description of the same, reference heilig had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a side view of a mule-head and vertical section of the carriage illustrating my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical section oi' the mule-headand carriage. Fig. 3 is an opposite side view of the spindle-driving mechanism from that shown in Fig. l. Fig. lis a plan View corresponding with Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a plan view showing the manner in which the rope which drives the quadrantgear is attached to the carriage.

Similar letters of reference indicate corre spending parts in the several figures.

The rst part of this invention relates to the employment of a mangle-wheel for producing the movement of the mule-carriage; and it consists in giving the inside gearing and guard of this wheel such a curvature as to produce such a movement of the carriage that the quadrantgear employed to produce the windingon movement of the spindles may be driven by the movement of the carriage not only \vith out the use of afriction-brake or binders to check the said winding-on movement as the carriage strikes in, but also without a scroll, thereby much simplifying the construction of the mule.

Another part of my invention has for its object the driving of the whole of the spindles on either side of the mule-head from one conimon horizontal cylinder instead of by means of several vertical drums, as is the common practice, and to dispense with a clutch on the horizontal shaft which runs the whole length of the carriage; and to this end it consists in a :novel method of obtaining the rotary movement of the aforesaid shaft on which I arrange the two cylinders, one on each side of the mulehead.

To enable others skilled in the art to Ina-ke and use my invention7 I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A is the frame of the mule-head.

B is the carriage.

C is the horizontal shaft working in lixed bearings in the mule-head frame and carrying the mangle-whcel D and a spur-gear,E, (shown dotted in Fig. 2,) which gears with the horiA Zontal rack E', attached to the carriage by an upright piece, E2, for the purpose of driving the same.

F is the pinion for driving the mangle-wheel, fast on a shaft, F', which works in bearingsin a yoke, Gr, which swings from the shaft H, from which motion is communicated to F by means of spur-gears H2 The internal gearing` of the mangle-wheel and the internal surface of the guard D', which is secured thereto for guiding of the shaft F and keeping the pinion F in gear, instead of being straight on both sides near the reversing-points of the same, as shown at c in Fig. 2, as is customary in the mangle-wheels used in mules, are made with a rounded curve, as shown at b, near the extremity, at which the reversal ofthe carriage, after runningin, is effected. The object of this curvature is to make the distance traveled by the pinion in the gearing at b greater than in the mangle-wheel of the old form, and thereby to cause the carriage to move up gradually slower before it strikes in. In this way I dispense not only with the scroll, but with a friction-brake and binders, by making the manglewheel itself perform the duty of the scroll, friction-brake, and binders, and obtain the necessary reduction of the velocity of the carriage and spindles as the carriage strikes in directlyT from the triangle-wheel.

I is the quadrant-gear, applied in the usual manner at one side of the mule-head, near the front thereof.

J is the pinion which drives the said gear, fast on a horizontal shaft, J', which works in fixed bearings at the front ot the mule-head. This shaft J has also firmly secured upon it a drum, J2, around which are taken several coils of a rope, d. One portion of this rope eX- tends downward from the said drum and under a pulley, c, attached to the lower part of the front ofthe mule-head, and its end is attached to the bottom of the carriage, and the other portion extends horizontally backward from the said drum over a pulley, c', attached to the upper part of the back of the mule-head; thence downward to and under a pulley, c2, atn tached to the lower part of the back of the mule-head, and its end is attached to the car riage. The rope d, thus having its two ends attached to the carriage and extending backward and' forward from the latter and being coiled around the drum J2, is caused by the movement of the carriage to give motion to the said drum, the shaft J, and the pinion J, and the latter gives motion to the quadrantgear as the carriage moves in either direction. rEhe ends of the said rope are not attached directly to the carriage, but (as shown in Fig. 5) to two pulleys, f f, the Vertical axles g got" which are iitted to turn in bearin gs in the bottoni of the carriage; and these pulleys have secured to them ratchet-wheels 't' t', the teeth of which are engaged by spring-pawls h h attached to the bottom of the carriage. By turning the axles g g with a wrench or key the pulleys ff are made to tighten the rope d whenever necessary, and thetension is retained by the pawls and ratchet-wheels, and thus the use of scrolls or devices of a similar nature used on other mules for tightening the rope which drives the quadrant-gear are dispensed with.

K, Figs. l, 3, and 4, is the horizontal shaft, which extends the whole length of the carriage,

in which it is supported lin suitable bearings,

and carries the two cylinders, one on each side of the mule-head, for driving the spindles. These cylinders are similarto those used in ordinary throstle or bobbin and ily frames, and as their character is well understood and their representation is not. necessary toillustrate my invention, lthey are notshown in the drawings.

L is a spur-gear secured to a loose sleeve, l, which is titted to turn freely upon the shaft K, and to which sleeve there is also secured a disk, L', carrying a pawhk, which enters the teeth of a ratchetwheel, m, firmly secured on the said shaft.

N is the drum on which is coiled the chain p, by which the running in of the carriage is made to produce the necessary rotary motion of the spindles to effect the windingon operation. This chain is connected with the quadrant inthe usual or any suitable manner. The shaft of the drum N, running in suitable bearings in the carriage, has tirmly'seeured to it a spur-gear, P, which is geared by an intermediate spur-gear, Q, with the spur-gear L ofthe loose sleeve on the cylinder-shaft K. rlhe teeth of the ratchet-wheel m are set in such a direction that as the drumN is turned in the direction of the arrows shown near it in Figs. 1 and 3 by the draft of the chain p produced by running in the carriage, the gear L and at tached disk L turning in the same direction will cause the said pawl to turn the ratchet-wheel, and thereby produce the necessary rotary Inotion of the shaft K; but as the carriage runs out and the drum N and gears L Q P are turned in the opposite direction by the weight r strap r', pulley r2, and the rope r3, connected with the drum, the pawl will pass freely over the ratchet-wheel without interfering with the operation of the shaft while the latter is being driven by a belt and pulleys for the operation of twisting and drawing.

In order to avoid unnecessary friction of the pawl 7c upon the teeth of the ratchet-wheel while the carriage runs in, the spring s, which operates to press the pawl into gear while the carriage runs out, is bent around and made to clasp a stationary hub, t, which eneircles and is concentric with the shaft K, and which is held stationary by means of an arm, t', which is connected by a rod, u, with onel of the rails of the carriage. This spring rests against the head of the pin S on which the pawl is hung, and enters between two pins, 6 and 7, attached to the heel of the pawl and acts upon the pin 6 to make the pawl engage with the ratchet when the carriage runs in; but 'when the disk L turns in the opposite direction, as the carriage runs out, the friction of the spring upon the hub causes it to hang back against the pin 7, and so tend to draw the pawl out of contact with the ratchet.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The triangle-wheel D, having its insid gearing and guard constructed substantially as herein described, applied to a mule in such manner as that it is made to check the movement of the carriage and the windingon movementofthe spindles as the carriage strikes in without the use of a scroll, frictionbrake, or binders.

2. Combining the shaft K of the carriage from which the spindles are driven with the drum N, on which the chain p from the quadrantgear is wound by means of gears L Q P, a disk, L', or its equivalent, a pawl, k, and a ratchet-wheel, m, the whole applied and operatin g substantially as herein specified.

ALEXANDER G. C UMNOCK.

Vitnesses:

G. H. WELLMAN, HoRAfrIo G. F. UoRLIss. 

